Originally Posted by Jabberwocky
I gotta admit all of those features sound cool to me.

Agreed. Not really a surprise though. Spellbound are no newbies, they´ve hired experienced RPG talent, and the tight budget is certainly the biggest they´ve ever had. Finally, I´ve read that Spellbound was almost a year into early production of their own RPG when they got the Gothic gig. Which would perfectly explain both why they got the contract (German studio, experience, low risk due to head start) and why they already have so much to show. They needed funding, JoWooD needed a Gothic clone.

To be honest, I'd rather see a fresh interpretation of the Gothic universe than Spellbound attempting to out-Piranha Piranha. If they have a year's worth of their own work to evolve into G4 (sorry, "A Gothic Tale,") so much the better.

You have a point. Don´t underestimate how much of a mainstream franchise Gothic is in Germany though. The audience has certain expectations. Maybe Spellbound can bring in 5-10% innovation, but the rest is locked.

If everything works perfectly we might be in a comfortable situation in a few years. Instead of one series we get 3, Risen & Gothic (PB) and Arcania.